To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Aug 8, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 08:41:01 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
8:00 PM Eastern
PBS - NATURE - "A Conversation With Koko" - Researchers
teach a gorilla to use sign language to communicate with
them.(CC)(TVPG)
DISC - DEADLY BUGS - Insects fertilize plants, till the soil
and serve as food for animals.(CC)(TVG)
9:00
CNN - DALAI LAMA: AT HOME IN EXILE - The exiled
Tibetan spiritual leader.(CC)
TLC - UNMASKED: EXPOSING THE SECRETS OF DECEPTION -
Hoaxes are revealed: crop circles, seances, mind
readers.(CC)(TVG)
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Eclipse News
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 08:58:38 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Palestinians Get Holiday, Warning
with Eclipse
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- The sun won`t be out
on Wednesday and neither will Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority, fearing eye damage as a
result of the last solar eclipse of the millennium on
August 11, has declared the day a national holiday
and is advising people to stay indoors.
The Palestinian cabinet made the decision late on
Friday. On Saturday, doctors went on radio to warn of
the potential health hazards of watching the
phenomenon with the naked eye.
The eclipse will follow a path from Nova Scotia,
across the Atlantic, central Europe, the Middle East
and India..
http://www.arabia.com/content/living/8_99/pales_8.shtml
--------------
Algerians Invited to Pray During
Eclipse
ALGIERS (AFP) -- Algerians were invited Saturday to
stay in mosques and say special prayers during
Wednesday`s solar eclipse, which will only be partial
in the north African state.
"These prayers will not be for the eclipse, but for
God, the creator, the protector," the ministry of
religious affairs said in a statement.
It based its advise on the traditions of Islam`s
prophet Mohammed.
-----edit-----
http://www.arabia.com/content/living/8_99/algiers_8.shtml
------------------------
Eclipse: End of the World for Some
Italians
ROME (Reuters) -- A poll released on Saturday found
that two percent of 600 Italians questioned about
next week`s solar eclipse believe it means the end of
the world is nigh.
The poll was carried out by retailers` association
Confesercenti and pollsters SWG who found that 3.9
percent of those polled believed the eclipse was
simply "a supernatural warning" while 9.9 percent saw
it as "an astronomical phenomenon with implications
for the health and the mood".
More reassuringly, 75.4 percent of respondents
pronounced the eclipse "a simple astronomical fact".
http://www.arabia.com/content/living/8_99/italy_8.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Kansas Board Targets Darwin
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 09:14:42 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Kansas Board Targets Darwin
By Hanna Rosin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 8, 1999; Page A1
For Kansas biology teacher Al Frisby, teaching evolution to
the many students who take the Bible literally is like
"banging his face against a brick wall." More than a third
of the students at his suburban high school in Shawnee
Mission, Kan., wrote in a final evaluation last year that
they did not believe a thing their teacher had to say on the
subject.
The challenge Frisby faces is apt to get tougher next year.
On Wednesday, a majority of the Kansas Board of Education
may vote to pass a new statewide science curriculum for
kindergarten through 12th grade that wipes out virtually all
mention of evolution and related concepts: natural
selection, common ancestors and the origins of the universe.
The new curriculum will not explicitly prohibit the teaching
of evolution. But its exclusion will severely undermine such
efforts when they come under attack from students, parents,
principals or local school boards in a state where fights
over evolution are as commonplace as cornfields. And because
all public schools in the state are tested yearly according
to the curriculum, teachers will be pressured to follow the
new curriculum.
If the conservative majority on the school board prevails as
expected, it will mark the most decisive victory in recent
years for the creationist movement: Christians who read the
book of Genesis literally and believe that God created human
beings and animals fully formed.
"This is the most explicit censorship of evolution I have
ever seen," said Molleen Matsumura of the National Center
for Science Education. In the past two decades, creationists
have undergone their own process of evolution. After a
series of court decisions from 1968 to 1987 barred the
movement's efforts to have biblical creationism taught in
the schools, activists changed their strategy. They began to
focus instead on attacking evolution as an unproven theory,
picking apart such basic building blocks as fossil records
and geological dating.
National organizations dedicated to "scientific creationism"
published books and videos and magazines designed to educate
students on how to resist what they described as the
"conspiracy" of evolution. School creation clubs opened
across the South and Midwest, meeting after school to trade
the latest discoveries intended to debunk evolution.
The movement's success has been evident in the past five
years. In dozens of states, religious conservatives on
school boards and legislatures have been chipping away at
what scientists consider a bedrock concept of biology:
In the last four years, school boards in at least seven
states - Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, New Mexico, Texas,
Kansas and Nebraska - have tried to remove evolution from
state science standards or water down the concepts, with
varying degrees of success.
State legislatures in both Georgia and Ohio have bills
pending that require all educators who teach evolution to
also teach evidence inconsistent with it. In 1995, Alabama
passed a law mandating that all biology books used in public
schools bear a sticker describing evolution as a
"controversial theory. ... No one was present when life
first appeared. Therefore any statement about life's origins
should be considered a theory and not a fact."
In 1996, the legislature in Tennessee, home of the famous
1925 Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution, considered
(though ultimately rejected)a bill allowing public school
teachers to be fired if they taught evolution as "fact"
rather than "theory."
In 1997, the Texas Board of Education proposed replacing all
biology books in the state with new ones that did not
mention evolution. The move was considered to signal a
national trend because Texas is the second-largest purchaser
of textbooks after California. The proposal failed by a slim
majority.
The movement's recent success may in part be a reflection of
the fairly widespread sympathy for some of its basic
principles. According to Gallup polls, about 44 percent of
Americans believe in a biblical creationist view, that "God
created man pretty much in his present form at one time
within the last 10,000 years." About 40 percent believe in
"theistic evolution," the idea that God oversaw and guided
the millions of years of evolution that culminated with
humankind. Only one in 10 of those surveyed held a strict,
secular evolutionist perspective.
While the movement's incrementalist tactics are new, what's
at stake for fundamentalist Christians has not changed much
since the first time they encountered Charles Darwin.
"Teaching evolution in public schools and telling children
they are just products of a survival of the fittest, just
animals struggling to survive, leaves many students with a
sense of purposelessness and hopelessness," said Mark Looy
of Answers in Genesis, one of the groups that provides
students materials. "What meaning is there to life?"
For biologists, the battle is equally deep-seated: In
evolution, they believe, lies the answer to who we are as a
post-Enlightenment, scientifically literate society.
The century-old debate erupted again, ironically, in part
out of a push to improve science education. About five years
ago, a craze for national standards and accountability in
every subject swept American classrooms. In response,
national groups of science educators wrote benchmarks for
scientific literacy to serve as models for states. The idea
was to replace blind memorization of facts and figures with
broad central concepts.
With evolution, the results were not what scientists had
predicted. Religious conservatives tapped into skepticism
from inside and outside the scientific community to
discredit evolution, seizing on routine disagreements among
scientists to disparage it as nothing more than a theory.
Although the timetables of evolution shift as new fossils
are discovered, most scientists generally believe the first
scraps of genetic material appeared about 4 billion years
ago. From that humble common ancestor evolved all other
species. The earliest homo sapiens - the cave-painting,
tool-making precursors to modern humans - appeared about
50,000 years ago.
Scientists acknowledge that evolution cannot be witnessed or
even re-created in a lab. But they note that this is true of
many accepted scientific phenomena, such as atoms or
electrons. Instead, scientists rely on fossil records and
geological data to piece together the species record. It is
that imperfect process creationists are attacking. Since the
Supreme Court ruled in 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard that
Louisiana could not
mandate that schools give equal time to teaching creation
science, activists shifted their focus to their current
tactic. Tomes by amateurs and PhD scientists alike now parse
through the fossil record, scanning for missing links or
spotty evidence.
Some creationists offer what they consider to be positive
scientific evidence for biblical explanations of the origins
of life. Creationists generally believe the Earth can be no
older than 10,000 years - a number arrived at by adding
biblical "begats." To prove Earth's relative youth, they
search, for example, for evidence that dinosaurs lived far
more recently than the millions of years ago cited by
paleontologists.
"One of our staff members went to Alaska recently and found
dinosaur bones that were not yet fossilized," said Looy, of
Answers in Genesis. "If dinosaurs perished 65 million years
ago, how could one have been around in the last few hundred
years? That matches with what the Bible teaches - that
dinosaurs lived recently."
In Kansas, the latest effort to end the teaching of
evolution has been driven by Steven Abrams, a school board
member, veterinarian and former head of the Republican
Party. Like many of the neo-creationists, Abrams prefers to
debate the science, not the Bible.
"Kids should be studying science, basic facts that can be
measured and observed," said Abrams. "Evolution is not good
science, and shouldn't be taught in the schools."
It's a message Abrams and five allies on the 10-member
school board want to introduce into the curriculum. First,
the group wiped out almost all of the paragraphs on
evolutionary ideas - including descriptions of cosmological
"evolution," the development of stars and the solar system.
The board members then went a step further, adding subtle
but unmistakable references to creationist science into
their proposal. As a general principle, they wrote that "no
evidence contradicting a current scientific theory shall be
censored."
They then included examples anyone familiar with the debate
would recognize as favorites of creationists, such as the
volcanic explosion of Mount St. Helens in 1980, a
catastrophe they say proves Earth can undergo monumental
changes in short periods of time.
"Evolution is the unifying theory of biology, and now
students will get such an incomplete picture," said Ken
Bingman, a Kansas biology teacher for 37 years who helped
write a rejected draft curriculum that included evolution.
"It's a travesty, and it really worries me that children
will miss out on this."
Frisby has spent many of his 27 years teaching trying to
fend off assaults on evolution. Last year, he said, was the
worst yet. First, students complained about an art mural in
the hallway showing an apelike creature evolving into modern
man.
Then one of the smartest girls in the class, the daughter of
a popular minister, began challenging him regularly,
insisting, for example, that there were human and dinosaur
footprints from the same age.
At the end of the year, Frisby was crushed to see the
results of the student evaluation of the class showing a
large proportion of the students ignored what he said about
evolution.
"I will not compromise," said Frisby. "If the school board
tells me I don't have the option to teach evolution I will
teach it nonetheless. And if they still insist I'll take
them to court for academic freedom."
John Wachholz is not so strident. Wachholz has been teaching
biology at Salina Central High School in central Kansas
since 1972 and every year warns students he will not teach
religion in science class. If they want to talk creationism
they can meet him at his Lutheran church, where he is a
regular member.
But the complaints are getting more frequent, and bolder,
and if the new standards pass next week, Wachholz thinks he
might retire early. "This thing will drive me out of
teaching," he said. "I'm a science teacher. If I teach
biology without evolution I'd be doing an injustice to
students, and to myself."
c 1999 The Washington Post
Company
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - GPS End-Of-Week Rollover
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 09:43:26 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
GPS End-Of-Week Rollover
Dateline: 06/14/99
On August 22, 1999, some GPS units will think that the date is
actually January 6, 1980, causing all sorts of navigational problems,
due to the GPS "End-of-Week" Rollover (EOWR) problem.
While the twenty-four Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and
the ground control center will breeze through the night of August 21
without a hitch, the EOWR problem is limited to GPS receiving units
(especially those constructed prior to 1994). Exact time is essential
to GPS to calculate precise positioning with respect to the
satellites.
The internal calendar of GPS units is based on a 1024-week
(approximately 19 years, 8 months, and 15 day) cycle which began on
January 6, 1980. The last week of the current GPS cycle begins on
August 15, 1999. After the last day of that week, August 21, the GPS
unit needs to switch to a new cycle of 1024 weeks.
Most newer GPS units will switch to a new cycle. The best way to
determine whether a GPS unit will be ready for August 22 is by
contacting the manufacturer. Most companies, such as Magellan,
Trimble, and Garmin, provide online lists of compliant, upgradable,
or noncompliant units online. There is also an online directory of
other GPS product manufacturers with links to their EOWR information.
The U.S. Coast Guard also provides a directory of phone numbers and
web sites for GPS manufacturers. It's a good idea to also check with
your manufacturer about Y2K compatibility as well.
Problems that are like to occur for incompatible GPS units include:
The GPS unit would be unable to locate any of the satellites. It
might take the GPS unit much longer to locate the satellites.
The unit may appear to function although it may provide
incorrect location, time, or date (especially 1024 weeks off).
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa061499.htm
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arafat Agrees to Israeli Proposal
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 15:58:12 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Arafat Agrees to Israeli Proposal
GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
gave his agreement Sunday to new Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak`s proposal to start implementing
the long overdue Wye River accord on September 1.
"We are in agreement" with Barak`s proposal to start
implementing the US-brokered accord next month,
Arafat told journalists after talks here with
visiting Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa
al-Thani.
"We greet this proposal with satisfaction even though
Mr. Barak had promised us that he would start
implementing the agreements from August," Arafat
said.
"The important thing is that Mr. Barak implement the
agreements quickly as he has undertaken to in front
of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US President
Bill Clinton," he said.
"There have been delays in the past and it is vital
that the Oslo and Wye agreements be implemented
without delay and in full." Since Arafat`s last
meeting with Barak on July 27, Palestinian officials
have spoken of a "serious crisis" in negotiations
because of the Israeli prime minister`s determination
to postpone some of the phased pullback from 13
percent more of the West Bank pledged under the Wye
agreement.
Palestinian officials have accused the new Israeli
leader of employing delaying tactics and demanded the
"immediate" implementation of all the promised
Israeli pullbacks.
Barak had proposed postponing the second pullback
still outstanding under the Wye accord and wrapping
it into so-called final status talks on a permanent
settlement.
He persuaded Arafat to reluctantly agree to take two
weeks to consider his proposals, but the Palestinians
suspended the talks with Israeli negotiators after
just two meetings.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/8_99/arafat_8.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arabia On Line items (8/8/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 16:01:38 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
UK Doctors Try to Create Cancer-Free Babies
Doctors are trying to create cancer-free babies, in families with a
history of the disease, using pioneering in vitro fertilization
techniques. http://www.arabia.com/content/living/8_99/cancer_8.shtml
Pope: Beware Power, Money
Pope John Paul II urged young Roman Catholics in Europe not to become
"slaves to power, pleasure, money and career."
http://www.arabia.com/content/culture/8_99/pope_8.shtml
Iraq Unsure About New Role for Saddam's Son
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/8_99/quasay_8.shtml
Qatari Emir Makes Landmark to Palestine
Qatar`s emir Shaikh Hamad Al-Thani became the visit Gulf monarch to
visit the Palestinian territories.
http://www.arabia.com/content/news/8_99/qatar_8.shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - SW England braces for solar eclipse
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 16:15:59 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/nation-world/html98/ecli_19990808.ht
ml
Posted at 09:47 p.m. PDT; Sunday, August 8, 1999
Southwestern England braces for solar eclipse
by The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune
LIZARD, England - The sun will turn black. The air will turn frigid.
Owls and bats will swarm in the midday sky. It will all happen at 11
minutes past the 11th hour on the 11th day of August. And if you think
that's a coincidence, you haven't been studying your necromancy
tables. On Wednesday, the last total solar eclipse of the millennium
will sweep across a long arc of Earth, from the North Atlantic to the
Bay of Bengal. The first point of land it crosses - achieving totality
from 11:11 to 11:13 a.m., local time - will be the southwestern corner
of England, a storied peninsula of rocky headlands and rolling green
hills that was the likely location of King Arthur's Camelot but is now
known as the county of Cornwall.
"For pagans, totality will be the most important two minutes of the
decade," said Andy Norfolk, an amiable landscape architect and druid
bard who is one of tens of thousands in this corner of Britain who
still practice ancient celestial religions. They will gather - at
henges, quoits and stone altars erected here long before Christ was
born - to worship as the sun and moon meet.
Cornwall is looking toward Wednesday with a mixture of alarm and
delight. On that day, more than a million people are expected to make
their way by car, bus, train, boat or plane to Cornwall to view the
first total eclipse of the sun to occur over Britain since 1927.
Too many tourists?
"Oh, yes, we'll have druids, necromancers, New Agers - the whole
sun-worshipping lot," said a smiling Gage Williams, a retired British
Army general who has been appointed Cornwall's eclipse czar. "But they
don't influence my planning, because most of them live here anyway.
"Our problem is all the outsiders who are going to come. Cornwall is a
narrow cul-de-sac with only three real roads, and we're going to have
more than a million tourists piling in here . . . About 100,000 of
them will be eclipse-chasers from the (United) States, and what will
they think if our county runs out of food or petrol or medicine or
nappies (diapers)?"
In theory, the eclipse should be manna for Cornwall. It's the poorest
county in Britain and is increasingly dependent on tourism. But when
Williams first laid out his battle plan to the county council 18
months ago, the reception was less than sunny.
"They seemed to think it was a lot of bother," Williams recalled. He
said one council member moaned: "The timing is bloody awful - middle
of vacation! Can't we get the date changed?"
But the orbital cycles that create a solar eclipse are immutable.
Cornwall, accordingly, has pulled out all the stops to make sure the
solar phenomenon is a solid plus.
The eclipse chasers
Of the million-plus people expected to travel to the eclipse, many
will bring their boats, jamming small harbors such as the beautiful
turquoise cove here at Lizard Point. The British coast guard predicts
100,000 small craft, the largest armada in British history.
Most hotels and bed-and-breakfast places in Cornwall have been booked
for the past year.
A few hundred well-heeled fans will ride on two chartered Concordes
that hope to follow the arc of eclipse as it moves across the globe.
British railroads have added enough cars to bring 28,000 additional
passengers - and all seats are sold.
But most visitors probably will come by car, and that worries the
eclipse czar. "We're urging people to put bicycles on top of their
cars, so if the (traffic) block is impossible, they can still get
through," Williams said.
Preparing for the influx
As the great day approaches, Cornwall echoes with warnings. Highway
authorities have erected signs on major arteries throughout England
that read: "Solar Eclipse - Expect long delays.'
Doctors have issued a stream of warnings that people who risk looking
directly at the sun may return from Cornwall blind or with their
vision seriously impaired. They say that the myriad special sunglasses
being sold for the occasion are of dubious value and that the only
safe way to view an eclipse is on television, or as an image projected
onto a piece of cardboard through a pinhole.
Emergency distribution plans have been put in place to ensure that
supermarkets remain stocked.
Cornwall has urged its citizens to conserve water, reminding them:
"You don't have to flush the loo every time."
Hospitals have postponed routine operations so they can deal with
medical emergencies.
Williams surmises that there might be a rush at maternity wards. "The
last druid baby born during a total eclipse grew up to be Merlin, and
some parents might want to repeat that," he said.
To make matters worse, anarchists have been distributing leaflets that
promise a day of chaos. They advertise an anarchy jamboree in the
fishing port of Penzance and call for a supermarket shoplifting spree,
a sit-in at a McDonald's in Penzance and an "Autogeddon" in which
dancers smash cars in the harbor parking lot.
The pasty problem
American eclipse-chasers who come to Cornwall may need to be wary.
Cornwall's residents have been less than pleased with Americans since
The New York Times' food critic wrote an article last week excoriating
their national dish, the Cornish pasty (rhymes with nasty). He
suggested the pasty could best be used as a doorstop.
The pasty is a traditional mix of beef, potato, turnip and onion,
seasoned with salt and pepper, encased in pastry and baked. It was
first baked 300 years ago for tin miners to take to work.
The Times article prompted one pasty-shop owner to burn the American
flag and declare a one-family embargo of hamburgers and California
wine.
Thus the potential for anarchist riots and a Cornwall-American war
face eclipse-watchers as they prepare for their once-in-a-lifetime
experience.
A mysterious event
Numerologists are analyzing why there are so many 11s in the time of
eclipse's totality. Astrologers are fascinated by the proximity to the
end of the millennium. But since the millennium, a Christian concept,
has no particular meaning to pagans, they have other things on their
minds.
Norfolk, a local druid who heads the Cornish Earth Mysteries Group,
says worship services and ritual bathing are the traditional pagan
activities during an eclipse.
But there is also a suggestion in the druid community that people
shouldn't observe the eclipse at all. Cassandra Lathan, a local nurse,
argues that an eclipse is the coming together of the sun and the moon.
"A god and goddess are making love," she said. "We have no right to
look upon it."
There is, of course, always a chance that no one will be able to see
it, anyway. Sir Martin Rees, the astronomer royal, points out that
although astronomers can forecast eclipses with precision centuries
ahead, science still cannot predict whether the skies over Cornwall on
Wednesday will be clear enough of clouds to see anything.
Copyright c 1999 Seattle Times Company
via: isml@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weekend News Today items (8/8/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 08:58:41 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Kinneret reaching danger level
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire
Sun Aug 8,1999 -- According to Tzvi Ortenberg of the Kinneret Water
Authority, the Kinneret will reach the red line of -213 meters below
sea level in about 50 days. It is believed the danger level will be
reached by October 1. Some experts explain that permitting the water
level to drop below the red line would result in an ecological
catastrophe and it must be avoided at all costs.
500 closed circuit cameras to be installed in Jerusalem's Old City
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire
Sun Aug 8,1999 -- As the police in cooperation with various security
services are continuing to beef up security in Jerusalem's Old City,
it is reported that no less than 500 closed circuit television cameras
will be installed to monitor events within the walls of the Old City
area. A situation room has been established which is manned by
representatives of the police, IDF, General Security Service, Magen
David Adom EMS service, and other agencies as well as 15 females
soldiers who monitor the television screens 24 hours daily. This is
all part of the preparations for the millennium and the expected large
numbers of tourists, including many Christian pilgrims making their
way to area holy sites. About 24 cameras have already been installed.
Jerusalem District Police refused comment on the story.
King Abdullah to visit Lebanon
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Arutz 7
Sun Aug 8,1999 -- In the first such visit by a Jordanian monarch in
more than 30 years, King Abdullah will visit Lebanon on September 14.
The two-day visit will revolve around the peace process. Lebanon
President Emil Lahoud paid a visit to Jordan's capital in May, and
Abdullah's younger brother, Crown Prince Ali, recently returned from
his own trip to Lebanon.
Water dispute continues in Israel
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Arutz 7
Sun Aug 8,1999 -- The National Labor Court is in session again today,
attempting to find a solution to the labor dispute between the workers
and management of the Mekorot water company. Mekorot Chairman Doron
Gruper sounded optimistic that the dispute would be solved by this
evening, but workers' representatives said that a solution is still
not in sight. A major sticking point is the issue of benefits to
senior employees.
Romanian eclipse: Pavarotti, Dracula and scientists
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Tampa Bay Online (AP)
Sat Aug 7,1999 -- When the moon glides across the sun, church bells
will toll in rural Romania, thanks to peasants atoning for their sins.
They'll also be watching out for rivers running with blood. But in the
cities, superstition takes a back seat to logic and culture - at least
for Wednesday's solar eclipse. Luciano Pavoratti will sing and
scientists and tourists will be ready to view the celestial event,
expected by NASA to be visible in Romania for 2 minutes and 22
seconds, longer than anywhere else in the world. For $200 a ticket,
the Italian tenor will hold a concert Wednesday after the eclipse.
Tourists are expected in the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, scientists
including NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and dozens of others from
the United States, Japan and Britain, have staked out their telescopes
in the central city of Ramnicu Valcea, the spot where the eclipse is
the longest. Bryce Babacock, a professor at Williams College, in
Williamstown, Massachusetts, says digital cameras will record 20,000
images of the eclipse. The 20-member American team hopes to gain vital
information about solar heating - that is, if the sunny weather holds.
For the less scientific minded, a fashion designer has brought out an
``Eclipse'' collection of clothing in gold, for the sun, and white,
for the moon. The traditional peasant explanation for the eclipse has
it that a wild animal eats the sun to punish men for their sins, says
Vladimir Manoliu, a researcher at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant.
They ring church bells to appease evil spirits. And in Romania, you
can never forget Dracula. To help conjure a spooky eclipse mood, TV
stations already have started airing films about that mythical
character, inspired by the bloodthirsty native prince Vlad the
Impaler. One woman, according to local media, called off her wedding,
which her fiance had thoughtlessly scheduled for Wednesday. It would
have been a bad omen.
Arab states face water shortage
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: ArabicNews
Fri Aug 6,1999 -- Some 15 Mediterranean states which met on Wednesday
in the city of Marseilles, southeastern France, met in the course of
the World Council for Water have warned that water shortage in the
Arab states will be catastrophic in the short run. Egyptian Minister
of Public Works and Water Resources Muhammad Abu Zeid, who is also the
chairman of the World Council for Water, an international center for
research which takes Marseilles as a headquarters, said, "In the
current world, the Arab region is the one which faced the greatest
shortage of water." The Arab states are meeting in Marseilles at the
invitation of the World Council for Water in order to prepare "an
outlook" about water in the 21st century. A provisional report will be
ratified in this respect in September in Beirut. This document will
represent the Arab viewpoint during the second forum of the World
Council for Water, which will be held in the Hague in the year 2000.
The task of the summit is to define "an outlook on the long run" for
water, life and the environment for the whole globe. The Arab states
consume every year more than 200 billion cubic meters of water, an
amount which is met during the rainy season, during which springs
provide 370 billion cubic meters. But the springs do not meet fully
the requirements in the dry season with its reserves of 180 billion
cubic meters. The current shortage in water will be very dangerous in
a short time, as expected by the participants in the meeting who
concluded their meetings on Thursday. By the year 2025 the Arab
states' population will be doubled. It will increase from 220 million
inhabitants in 1990 to 445 or 520 million inhabitants in 2025.
Therefore water shares per capita annually will be in the best case
830 cubic meters and in the worst cases 340 cubic meters as expected
by UNESCO's consultant in Cairo, Kamal Saad. The UN has set a ceiling
of 1,000 cubic meters of annual water consumption per individual,
otherwise if the figure goes down health problems will be emerging.
Israel founds farm in Jordan
Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire
Fri Aug 6,1999 -- Israel has established a state-of-the-art farm in
the city of Krak, Jordan, just south of Amman, Israel Radio reported.
Two hundred genetically-modified flocks were transferred to the farm
this week. In recent months, Jordanian agricultural experts studied
techniques for raising fowl in Israel. [Moderator's note: FYI: This
farm appears to be in the land given to Reuben. Now there are
settlements or farms in all of the 12 tribes listed in Revelation. And
all are in territories that Israel has not reclaimed, or will most
likely soon be giving away. ]
via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - China News Digest items (8/9/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 09:02:13 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
China to Spend Billions on 50th Anniversary Celebration
[CND, 08/08/99] Beijing plans to spend 4.5 billion yuan (HK$4.19
billion) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of
China on October 1st, the Hong Kong Standard reported on Saturday.
A parade on National Day will cost 2.5 billion yuan, and a facelift of
the capital city is estimated at two billion yuan. To avoid social
unrest, Beijing also ordered local governments not to levy farmers and
laborers for the special occasion.
A new theme is currently promoted: the construction of a socialist
spiritual civilization, and a new China under three leaders: MAO
Zedong, DENG Xiaoping and JIANG Zemin. (XU Mingyang, WU Yiyi)
Only 23 Percent of Drinking Water Meets Standard: Study
[CND, 08/08/99] A study of drinking water indicated that only 23
percent water samples in large cities satisfy the national health
standards, reported the Xinmin Evening News, a Shanghai-based
newspaper.
According to figures released by China's Academy of Preventive
Medicine, the study did not cover drinking water samples from
townships and villages. That means that the potential failure rate can
be much higher.
The academy pointed out that tap water in cities often lacks clarity,
has unacceptably large content of iron and manganese, and shows high
counts of coliform bacteria when tested. Foul odor contamination is
also a big problem. The study further criticized excessive use of
chlorine additives by water authorities during water treatment, which
is blamed as the main cause for high occurrences of stomach and
intestinal cancer in China. (Jenny HUANG, YIN De An)
via: CND-Global Editors <cnd-editor@cnd.org>
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (8/9/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 09:13:53 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Report: China blocks Papal visit
HONG KONG (AP) - China has blocked a proposed visit by Pope John Paul
II to Hong Kong over the Vatican's diplomatic ties with Taipei, a Hong
Kong newspaper reported Monday. A spokesman for China's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs told the Union of Asian Catholic News agency that
Beijing had ruled out a visit to this Chinese territory in November as
part of John Paul's Asian tour because of politics, according to the
South China Morning Post. The South China Morning Post said the
Chinese spokesman cited the Vatican's "so-called diplomatic relations
with Taiwan" as the reason for keeping the pope out. On his return
from a top-level meeting in Rome, Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen
confirmed that the papal visit had been ruled out, and the pope would
likely go to New Delhi or Bombay in India instead. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560629512-4a3
*** Yeltsin fires Russian premier
MOSCOW (AP) - President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei
Stepashin and the entire Cabinet Monday, the fourth time in the past
18 months he has sacked the country's government. Vladimir Putin, the
head of the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB,
was named acting prime minister, the Kremlin said. The move creates
another political crisis in Russia as the country prepares for
parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll in the
middle of next year. Yeltsin dismissed Stepashin in a Monday morning
meeting at the Kremlin. Stepashin, who served as premier for only
three months, said he was not given any reason for his dismissal.
"This morning I visited the president and he signed a decree on my
resignation. He thanked me - and fired me," a somber-faced Stepashin
told the Cabinet in a speech that was broadcast on Russian television.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560631497-eed
*** Guyanese president to resign
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Guyana's U.S.-born president, whose term in
office has been plagued by volatile opposition protests, announced
Sunday that she was resigning because of ill health. Janet Jagan, 78,
hospitalized in the United States last month after a mild heart
attack, told a nationwide television and radio audience she will be
succeeded by the country's 35-year-old finance minister, Bharrat
Jagdeo. The succession will usher in a dramatic generational change in
the English-speaking South American country. Jagan, a former Marxist
and Guyana's first female leader, did not say when she would step
down, although state-owned Guyana Television reported that the Jagdeo
would be sworn in as president Wednesday. Jagan's term was to run to
2001. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560629395-7bd
*** Albright may delay Mideast visit
JERUSALEM (AP) - With Israelis and Palestinians unable to agree on a
date to implement the latest land-for-peace deal, a Palestinian
official said Sunday that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was
putting off a visit to the region. Albright had been expected to visit
in late August to prod forward the peace process, but Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erekat said the visit was delayed until the beginning
of September. Both Israel and the Palestinians made conciliatory
remarks Sunday, but the two sides remained divided over when to
implement Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank promised in the
land-for-security deal reached in October at Wye River, Md. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560625961-a3d ***
Also: Barak vows Wye movement in 4 weeks, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560624289-c20
*** German gov't might use Nazi offices
BERLIN (AP) _ Hitler's "Thousand-Year Reich" lasted only a dozen
years, but a few of the hulking neoclassic buildings erected by Nazi
megalomaniacs still loom over the heart of Berlin. Now, with the city
resuming its role as the federal capital, the incoming government -
hungry for office space but strapped for cash - has reluctantly
recycled them for its ministries. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's
staff officially moves into the former Reichsbank Monday, where gold
looted from concentration camp victims piled up in the basement while
officials above worked to finance Hitler's war effort. The Finance
Ministry is taking over the former Aviation Ministry, where Luftwaffe
chief Hermann Goering plotted Hitler's air war. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560624644-9e5 ***
Also: Israeli says Germans have faced past, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560604920-f27
*** Seniors hold sex fair in Finland
KUTEMAJARVI, Finland (AP) - At "Lake Lovemaking," around 5,000
seniors gathered this weekend to show sexuality doesn't end at a
certain age, at a sex festival featuring anatomically correct statues
and provisions for a roll in the hay. The idea for the three-day sex
festival arose when regional officials asked the villagers to come up
with an event to commemorate the United Nations' designation of 1999
as International Year of Older Persons. The choice of the event seemed
a natural to the people of Kutemajarvi - the name literally means
"spawn lake" - an area 150 miles northeast of Helsinki, that regards
itself as one of the most romantic locales in Finland. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560624482-33e
*** German stores defy shopping ban
HALLE, Germany (AP) - More than 100 stores in this eastern city
opened their doors to customers Sunday, a bold move by retailers
fighting for the right to do business seven days a week. Store
owners, mostly in the economically struggling east, have been urging
courts all summer to relax Germany's strict laws on store hours, which
prohibit Sunday shopping. Advocates want to do more business and also
create jobs. But unions, church leaders and even German President
Johannes Rau oppose the trend, saying Sunday and religious holidays
should be for family time and contemplation - not shopping. Last
weekend, stores in Halle and Dessau, the state's main cities, were
open after a court ruling gave them that Sunday only as a test. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560624469-cb1
*** Museum store pulls a-bomb earrings
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AP) - Souvenir earrings with tiny
silver replicas of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan will no longer be
sold at the National Atomic Museum. Friday's decision to pull the
earrings comes on the 54th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
The earrings - shaped like "Little Boy," which was dropped on
Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and "Fat Man," which was dropped on
Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945 - had drawn protests from Gensuikyo, an
anti-nuclear group in Japan. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560608458-186
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Helping Homosexuals?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 09:22:49 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Christians in San Diego took a loving approach to the 25th annual Gay
& Lesbian Pride Day Parade. Instead of shunning the participants, who
begin the march in front of their church, members of Calvary Temple
Assembly of God opened the church=C6s doors, stood outside, and invited
them inside to use the restrooms and get a drink of cold water. "Most
people did a double-take and would then look up at the sign to see who
we were," pastor Jack Sampier told AG News Service. Some accepted the
invitation. "If we simply gave a different view of Christians from the
one most homosexuals have, we will have added to the weight of God's
work in their lives," he said.
http://www.religiontoday.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Eclipse study
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 09:31:38 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
Why is the eclipse going to be total in those particular cities? I
was curious so I put together a study that has some history for a lot
of the cities the eclipse is going through. It can be read at:
http://www.mv.com/ipusers/butterfly/eclipse/eclipse2.htm
The eclipse starts by crossing the ocean for 40 minutes. It makes
landfall on St. Mary's Island and from there seems to go on a tour of
gothic cathedrals in Europe--hitting at least 6 cities with
cathedrals named Notre Dame (Our Lady) alone. Cities throughout
Germany are noteable for their Black Death persecution/blood
libel/holocaust activities, as well as their cathedrals. Middle East
countries are not as easily categorized and research is still being
done on those. The study will not be complete before Wednesday so I
thought I'd send the url now so people can take a look at what we
have. Some of the files are quite large because the Civic Arms of the
cities have been added.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - New claim over discovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 06:40:31 -0500
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
New claim over discovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant
By David M. Bresnahan
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
An archeologist who claims to have found the Ark of the
Covenant directly below the crucifixion site of Jesus Christ has
died after giving a deathbed interview to WorldNetDaily.
Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Ark of the Covenant, the
crucifixion site of Jesus Christ, and more have been the subject
of controversial claims made by an archeologist who spent much
of his life documenting sites and events from the Bible.
Ron Wyatt died after a lengthy battle with cancer last
Wednesday, but his quest to provide information that would lead
to more people accepting the teachings of the Bible continues at
Wyatt Archeological Research, a non-profit, non-denominational
organization in Tennessee.
Reached just before his death, the telephone interview with
Wyatt was to last only a few minutes because of his very weak
condition. He actually spoke for nearly an hour. A few days
later, Wyatt succumbed to the disease.
The evidence of the various finds Wyatt claimed to have made
has been debated by religious leaders, scholars and lay people,
for at least a decade. There are many who believe his findings
are genuine, and there are a few who are not so willing to
accept his claims.
According to Wyatt, he was able to physically locate the Ark of
the Covenant, the container for the original tablets of the Ten
Commandments, with the Mercy Seat intact on the top. It was
found in a chamber just outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem
about 20 feet below what Wyatt also claimed was the actual site
of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Wyatt said he found an earthquake crack directly below where
the cross would have been. It extends down through the rock to
the resting place of the Mercy Seat atop the Ark of the
Covenant, he told WorldNetDaily. The blood of Christ would have
flowed through that crack after his death and after his side was
pierced by a soldier's spear.
The site of the crucifixion appears to have evidence that it
was once enclosed in a first century building, apparently a
church. The site includes a large round stone which perfectly
fits the Garden Tomb -- accepted by many as the place from which
the body of Christ rose from the dead.
The Bible teaches the concept of sacrifice of animals, symbolic
of the actual blood sacrifice Christ would make. The act of
Christ, regarded by some as the great High Priest, permitting
himself to be sacrificed and placing his own blood upon the
Mercy Seat was the great and final act in the process of blood
sacrifice, according to the writings of Wyatt.
Wyatt believed that the Ark of the Covenant, along with other
sacred objects from the first Temple in Jerusalem, were all
secreted away just prior to the entrance of the Babylonians into
the city about 600 years before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
There are many tunnels beneath Jerusalem even to this day. These
most sacred objects were protected in a chamber and the entrance
was sealed and hidden.
"When Christ died, the earth quaked. The rock was split right
below His cross and this crevice extended right down into the
hidden chamber which contained the undefiled 'earthly' Throne of
God -- the Ark with its Mercy Seat," explained Wyatt in one of
his research letters. "After He was dead, when the centurion
stuck his spear into Christ's side and pierced His spleen, the
blood and water came out, falling down through that crack and
was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat."
Wyatt explained that in the former Temple service, the high
priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat.
Wyatt said Christ, as the great High Priest, was the only one
who could physically sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat. It
was an act of God that everything was in the right place, and
that there was an earthquake which enabled Christ to spill his
own blood onto the Mercy Seat in fulfillment of this ancient
rite, he explained.
Wyatt did not make any claims of grandeur, nor did he claim to
be a prophet. He said his only role was to be a willing servant.
"God has a way of communicating his wishes to people, and I'm
not the only one that able to do that so I don't flatter myself
to think that I'm something special. I was there, I was willing,
so therefore God allowed me this privilege. There are others who
are in communication with him. There are others who are familiar
with this material who will see that it is presented," Wyatt
told WorldNetDaily by phone just before his death, indicating
that more of his evidence and findings will soon be made public.
Full story:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/19990809_xex_new_claim_ov
shtml
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - A U.N. Invasion of the U.S.? -- Rumor dispelled
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 06:59:45 -0500
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
An invasion of U.S. by U.N. -- not!
Internet folklore story is full of globaloney
By David M. Bresnahan
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Rumors of thousands of United Nations vehicles being outfitted
behind a remote federal prison in Texas have been spread across
talk radio and Internet web sites -- all heavy on conjecture and
short on facts.
The truth was easily verified by WorldNetDaily, and the results
show how easily a wild story can use a small portion of truth to
sound genuine. Americans who have long ago stopped trusting
their government, and talk show hosts who like wild stories,
were quick to accept this story without verifying the facts.
The tale of a U.N. force being prepared as an international
police force apparently began with a genuine effort by amateur
investigators to expose what they thought was a subversive plot.
The operator of a Texas-based Internet hosting service began
publishing news stories on his website. That service then
expanded to conducting local investigations into local Texas
rumors.
David Palmquist, operator of AllTexas.net, agrees that he is
untrained as a journalist, but he is trying to fill a gap that
he says the local news media has left unfilled. He published a
story that told of 1,000 white vehicles being stockpiled at a
high-security prison in Bastrop, Texas.
"All the vehicles are U.N. white," said Palmquist in his
article.
"Rumors have been floating in the area for months about a fleet
of suspicious vehicles being outfitted with prisoner cages,
shackles and insignia such as 'U.S. Police Force' and the U.N.
roundel. None of the vehicles observed in the storage area
appeared to have any markings at all other than window stickers
with equipment data," he stated in the article.
Palmquist said an unnamed prison official told him that the
vehicles were being outfitted with prisoner cages and shackles,
and that the vehicles were for the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
He disputed those claims in his article stating that, "vehicles
assigned to the INS are predominantly painted green and those
assigned to the Border Patrol are usually the same. The
suitability of a high-visibility color such as white for either
agency is in question. Large, white vehicles can be seen
approaching from miles away."
WorldNetDaily received many concerned requests from readers to
look into the story. Palmquist claimed he was a frequent guest
on talk shows from coast to coast as a result of his article. He
admitted to going onto the prison property without proper
clearance to take pictures from the ground, and he also flew
over in a plane to take aerial photographs.
The pictures did show hundreds of white vehicles neatly parked
on the prison property.
One call to the federal prison at Bastrop brought many answers,
and a second call to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service in Washington, D.C. found the remaining answers.
"That story could be nothing further from the truth," said Tim
Stewart, executive assistant at the Bastrop prison, which he
said is a minimum security facility, not a maximum security
prison as claimed in the article.
"What we're doing here is our Unicore factory, our federal
prison industries has undergone a mission change. We previously
made ballistic helmets and vests for the military. We are no
longer doing that. Our mission change now is that we are taking
brand new vehicles that have been sold to the INS and we're
retrofitting those vehicles so they can put them on the line.
Basically just fixing them up for their use. Putting in radios,
radio harnesses, and things of that nature. Stripping them and
decaling them for the INS," explained Stewart.
He said there are between 900 and 1,000 white Dodge vans,
Tahoe, Suburbans and Durangos lined up and waiting to be
prepared for service. Inmates are presently preparing the
factory for the new work, so the vehicles have been accumulating
during the delay.
None of the vehicles are for use by the U.N. and none of them
presently have any marking on them. Soon they will all receive
an INS seal and some lines. White is a common color used by INS,
and they will be shipped to locations in every state of the
nation when they are finished.
"The only other federal prison industry that we have here is a
broom factory. We make brooms for sale to GSA (General Services
Administration). It's kind of a two-part factory. We've had that
for years," explained Stewart.
It was late in the day when WorldNetDaily reached INS by phone
in Washington, D.C. The officials were gone for the day but
another INS spokesman was willing to explain what was happening
in Bastrop even though he stressed he was not an official
spokesman.
"They were going to close the prison and put a whole lot of
people out of a job. Rather than close the prison, the DOJ
(Department of Justice) came to INS and said, 'What do you do in
your field to promote the economy?'
"You know INS. We have law enforcement vehicles all over the
country. We have police cars, or patrol cars, and we have patrol
4x4s and they're all over the country. This whole initiative in
Bastrop has kept the prison open, but we just overwhelmed them
because we buy so many vehicles," he explained.
Shortly after the conversation with the INS spokesman, Russ
Bergeron, the official spokesman for INS left a voice mail
message to confirm the information but said he would be out of
the office for the remainder of the week.
WorldNetDaily receives many tips on various news stories every
day. Many rumors are quickly dispelled with a phone call or two,
however other tips often lead to very important discoveries that
are not reported in the mainstream media.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/19990809_xex_an_invasion_
shtml
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Genetic testing kit for $20
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 13:18:27 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/q132fc2.htm
-
Monday August 9 1999
DIY genetic testing kit on sale for $20
By Patti Waldmeir in Atlanta
Genetic fingerprinting, one of the most powerful if controversial
tools of American law enforcement, can now be done cheaply and
privately using a do-it-yourself DNA kit just on the market.
Aimed at lawyers, the $20 kit can be used to resolve inheritance
disputes, provide genetic medical records in adoptions, identify
victims of child abduction or the remains of air crash victims,
predict disease risk in future generations and trace genealogy.
"We can even do pets," said Leigh Harman, co-founder of DNA
Identification Systems of Birmingham, Alabama, who suggested that
home-storing the genetic fingerprint of a race horse, for example,
could help police identify the animal if stolen.
In the kit come two sterile swabs and a specially treated cardboard
card. Users swab the inside of the cheek, dab the saliva on the card,
seal and store it in a filing cabinet or desk drawer.
For extra protection, the seal can be witnessed and notarised.
Home storage involves no blood, is cheaper than using a commercial DNA
databank and reduces the risk of unauthorised disclosure.
Marketing the kit at the annual conference of the American Bar
Association in Atlanta, Florrye Cleveland, co-founder of DNA
Identification Systems, said she thought estate planners would be the
company's biggest market.
"That way, if anyone contests the will, you don't have to exhume the
body," she pointed out, adding in the appropriate drawl: "Nobody can
just come along and say, 'That's my Daddy!'"
She recommends that the DNA kit be stored along with the will.
Genetic material from biological parents and grandparents could also
be anonymously stored in the kit and provided in an adoption, so
adoptive parents would have a full genetic medical record for their
child.
Ms Cleveland advises clients to try to take genetic samples from their
own parents or grand-parents now, to keep for the day when treatments
are available for illnesses which can be predicted genetically.
"A DNA sample may be the most valuable possession you leave your
family," says the company promotional brochure.
Because the science of DNA storage is so new, Leigh Harman added, the
kits are guaranteed for only 10 years.
"But there is no scientific reason the material wouldn't last
forever," she said, thus providing a family genetic record for
generations to come.
via: isml@onelist.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Arutz-7 News items (8/9/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 13:27:48 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
JORDANIAN PROFESSIONALS AGAINST NORMALIZATION WITH ISRAEL
The Jordan Times reports that the leaders of Jordan's 14 professional
groups are considering strong sanctions against Jordanians who pursue
their studies in Israeli universities. Jordan's professional
associations have a strict anti-normalization policy, which prohibits
members from conducting any activities with Israel or the Israelis.
The presidents of the professional associations recently discussed a
recommendation by the anti-normalization committee that would ban
graduates from Israeli universities from becoming members in Jordanian
associations.
"[The presidents] will send a letter to the Higher Education Council,
asking them not to recognize academic degrees from Israeli
universities," said Ali Abu Sukkar, president of the
anti-normalization committee. "We will call on families not to send
their [children] to Israeli universities, and we will call on the
students not to be involved in Israeli cultural activities." Members
could face penalties ranging from a warning to expulsion for one year.
Professional who are not registered as members in the appropriate
association may not be able to practice their professions in Jordan.
IMRA notes that several months ago, Jordanian Television showed the
late King Hussein addressing the professional associations'
leadership, and directing them to keep out of foreign affairs.
MOSLEM BOYCOTT OF BURGER KING
A coalition of Moslem organizations has announced a worldwide campaign
to boycott Burger King restaurants. A press release circulated by
American Muslims for Jerusalem last week explained that "Burger King
ignored Muslims' concerns over the opening of a restaurant in
Palestinian-territory occupied by Israel." The restaurant in question
is located in a new shopping mall in Ma'aleh Adumim. Located just 10
minutes north-east of Jerusalem, Ma'aleh Adumim was founded in 1982,
received municipal status in 1991, and now boasts some 28,000
residents. Prior to leaving office, former Prime Minister Netanyahu
approved a plan to expand Ma'aleh Adumim's city borders up to the
Jerusalem neighborhood of French Hill.
The AMJ press release writes that the restaurant in Ma'aleh Adumim,
which was part of the area captured by Israel during the Six-Day War,
"makes Burger King a party to illegal occupation." In a second press
release, AMJ proudly announces that the Arab League is due to convene
in September to consider a resolution calling for the boycott, which
would force the closure of established Burger King locations in Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
GENE-ADDITIVES TO TREES ENHANCE GROWTH
Hebrew University researchers have discovered that the introduction of
a particular gene into trees and plants can produce greatly
accelerated growth, leading to a reduction in growth time by one-third
to half of the normal time required. Among other things, this could
provide a possible solution for the rapid restoration of forests that
have been depleted in order to supply the world's growing demand for
wood and paper. The process can also be applied to accelerate growth
for a number of everyday agricultural products as well. The discovery
was made by a Hebrew University research team headed by Dr. Oded
Shoseyov of the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental
Quality Sciences in the Rehovot branch.
Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.a7.org>
Monday, Aug. 9, 1999 / Av 27, 5759
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - What's New at BPR?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 11:23:30 -0500
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Bible Prophecy Research
Additions and updates made since Jul 25, 1999
Number 29
August 9, 1999
==================
Hello everyone...
We have a few updated files and misc info to share with you, so
let's get to it.
=====================
> Updated: Mark
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/m-002-01.htm
> Updated: New Jerusalem
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/n-012.htm
> Updated: The Millennium's Last Solar Eclipse
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-005.htm
Note: This update includes a link to a file by Moza detailing
the various cities involved in the path of the eclipse.
See: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/butterfly/eclipse/eclipse2.htm
"The eclipse starts by crossing the ocean for 40 minutes. It
makes landfall on St. Mary's Island and from there seems to go
on a tour of gothic cathedrals in Europe--hitting at least 6
cities with cathedrals named Notre Dame (Our Lady) alone. Cities
throughout Germany are noteable for their Black Death
persecution/blood libel/holocaust activities, as well as their
cathedrals. Middle East countries are not as easily categorized
and research is still being done on those. The study will not be
complete before Wednesday so I thought I'd send the url now so
people can take a look at what we have. Some of the files are
quite large because the Civic Arms of the cities have been
added."
=====================
MISC SITE INFO
* Our BPR List Digests and Archives page is going through some
changes. I've now started indexing the various message headers
in each subject so it may be a bit easier now to quickly spot a
message you are interested in. This is a time-consuming project
as all the indexing has to be done manually, but I hope to have
it finished before too long.
The archives page is located at
http://philologos.org/bpr/listdig.htm
* Also, the Philologos Online Bookstore has started listing the
Table of Contents from the various books we feature online.
We'll start listing the contents with each new book we add.
Eventually we hope to go back and add a Table of Contents
to the older book listings as well.
The Bookstore is located at
http://philologos.org/bookstore
* I've added a new Christian news link to our "tools" page.
It's http://www.worthynews.com -- "Your one stop Christian news
source"
=====================
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Nine Great American Myths
Pat Apel
$1.95 CBD (Christian Book Distributors)
From the back cover: "Are Americans God's chosen people? Are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness the biblical goals
of the Christian faith? Does what best suits a person's
individual need automatically coincide with God's will?
"Many people have grown up thinking so. But these beliefs are
not biblical. They are not Christian in their origin. They are a
result of what author Pat Apel defines as Americanism.
"Americanism is a combination of history, people, places, and
customs that shape and form the way we perceive ourselves, our
rights, and our nation. It's the world view, unique to our
nation that confuses and mistakenly blends the American Dream
with the Christian faith.
"It misleads us into a cultural Christianity that voids
sacrifice. That denies the need for accountability. That spurns
discipline. A false faith built on materialism, selfishness, and
the search for 'the good life.' It's impossible to escape. It's
subtle, at times. And it's dangerous."
Excerpts from the book: "Vance Packard, in his 1957 book, 'The
Hidden Persuaders,' says that excepting those behind the Iron
Curtain, Americans are the most manipulated people in the world.
The bombardment from the media in the secular world more than
anything else guides our conduct and our thoughts."
"...we should recognize that we are no more a Christian nation
than present-day Israel is the Jewish nation. We are a secular
state with a mythology which places us at the center of the
universe. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that our
mythology justifies our actions."
"Martin Lloyd-Jones writes: 'The man who thinks he is godly
because he talks about God and says he believes in God and goes
to a place of worship occasionally but is really living for
certain earthly things--how great is that man's darkness.'"
"We live in a country with double vision. One vision calls us
to the American Dream with its seductive myths and siren song of
selfish success. The other calls us to a faith in God and His
truth. One is a call to status and wealth; the other a call to
holiness and community."
This book wasn't easy reading but overall worth the effort. I
don't agree with some of the people he quotes, but what he does
quote from them seems to be when they are at their best. For
this price, a great addition to any library. -- Moza
For further information and a Table of Contents visit
http://philologos.org/bookstore/Listings/apel.pat.1.htm
----
Also, two other book listings we've added online that you may
be interested in are:
God's Appointed Times by Barney Kasdan
God's Appointed Customs by Barney Kasdan
Both books are listed at
http://philologos.org/bookstore/catalog.frame.htm
=====================
JEWISH CALENDAR
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Calendar/A.htm
The month of Elul
New Moon - 1 Elul - August 13, 1999
Aug 18 - Cassini Space Probe Flyby of Earth (Probe will fly
within 800 km of the surface of the earth).
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-008.htm
Aug 18 - "Grand-Cross" Alignment
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-011.htm#Aug18
Aug 23 - Russian Space Station Mir to be abandoned
Aug 25 - Northern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
==============
That's it folks! Have a good couple of weeks. And those of you in
Europe and elsewhere, enjoy the eclipse!
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (8/9/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 19:32:40 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
*** Yeltsin fires another prime minister
MOSCOW (AP) - President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei
Stepashin and the entire Cabinet Monday, and announced that the new
premier is the man he'd like to see as president next year. Yeltsin's
unexpected move marked the fourth time in 17 months he has fired the
government. Yeltsin immediately named Vladimir Putin, the head of the
Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, as acting
prime minister. Putin, 46, has spent most of his career in the
country's security services and has little experience with political
or economic issues. But Yeltsin, whose term expires next year,
declared Putin would be his preferred successor. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560638888-836 ***
And: New Russian premier former KGB spy, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560634300-5c0 ***
Also: Stepashin's loyalty not enough, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560634367-fd9 ***
Chronology of Russian gov't, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560635791-ca4
*** Nagasaki prays for world peace
TOKYO (AP) - The people of Nagasaki fell silent Monday amid the clang
of bells, the shriek of sirens and the flutter of doves marking the
moment 54 years ago when an atomic bomb shattered their city. Three
days earlier, Hiroshima had felt the blast of the world's first atomic
bombing, when 140,000 people died. Then on Aug. 9, 1945, a second
American A-bomb killed more than 60,000 people in Nagasaki. Japan
surrendered unconditionally six days later, on Aug. 15, 1945. It was
the end of World War II. "Our city of Nagasaki was instantly
transformed into charred ruins," Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito said in a
commemorative ceremony Monday. The pain of that day, the mayor
reminded the world, has yet to end. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560638857-6e8
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israeli Exhibit to be New Feature at Disney World
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 19:34:57 +0000
From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>
ISRAELI EXHIBIT TO BE NEW FEATURE AT DISNEY WORLD
King David is to join forces with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
this fall, when Walt Disney World unveils its new Israeli
exhibit, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Israel's exhibit not only
will be the largest on display at a new Millennium Village at
the complex's Epcot Center in Florida, but it will also be the
only one featuring a ride. Israel's pavilion will officially
open on September 30 in the presence of United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Anan.
The exhibit is a three-course experience. Seating 120 people,
it will open with an eight-minute film depicting the country's
religious history. After this, guests are led by a King David
character into another room to view a screening of Journey to
Jerusalem, a simulated theater ride and the exhibit's main
attraction. The eight-minute journey is very similar to
Jerusalem's Time Elevator at Beit Agron.
Finally, guests will leave the ride and enter into "The Israel
Experience." Starting with a walk on a path made from Jerusalem
stone, the guests will enter an area depicting a union between
ancient and modern Israel. Here they will be greeted by a
replica of the Tower of David and an electronic Western Wall,
where they will be invited to place a "wish."
More than a million visitors a month are expected to attend the
millennium village for its 15-month life span. The entire
project cost approximately $8 million, of which $1.8 million was
provided by the Foreign Ministry. Commercial sponsors paid a
part, but Disney provided the bulk of the investment.
via: Consulate of Israel - New York <nycon@interport.net>
Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.